To Love Something Death Can Touch
by warmshivers
Summary: How terrible it is to love something death can touch.
1. Prologue

And I've never needed someone so much. He's the first man I've ever loved and I knew he'd be the last. It hurt just looking at him. He'd hate it if I ever admitted it to anyone but him, but he was beautiful. To me, he was the most beautiful being I'd ever seen. He wasn't perfect. He was scarred in more ways than one but it just made him even more beautiful. A dark and beautiful thing. And I loved him. I want him with everything I had. I needed him. And he would never admit it to anyone but he needed me just as much.

At night, when he would crawl into my bed, and not say a word. He would wrap his arms around my waist and pull me close. He would bury his face in my neck and breathe as if it was the only fresh air he'd gotten all day. And I would hold onto him. As if it was the first solid ground my feet had found in hours. And we would stay still. Wrapped up in each other. The only anchors holding one another down. Keeping each other from losing ourselves. He was my savior. My dark angel. He was everything I needed and I knew I'd never loved anyone or anything like I loved him and it terrified me and I know it terrified him.

But it was the mess we made together. And we'd lie in our bed.

Together.


	2. Chapter 1

Glenn looked up from his spot on the bed and saw her standing in the doorway. He was surprised; she wasn't how he'd pictured her. The girl was probably around 5'7" with long legs and curves Glenn couldn't ignore, no matter how grave his situation. She was tan, more than likely from the unrelenting Georgia sun, and her dark chocolate curls were too soft-looking for her to be surviving a zombie apocalypse. She had the kind of face that made you think you'd seen her before, which Glenn knew he hadn't. He'd remember a face like that. Especially the eyes. Her eyes were a pale, clear blue that looked at you like she'd seen the entire world and didn't want to talk about it.

She was snug in a pair of dark jeans and a red flannel. Her feet were shoved into worn brown leather boots and if Glenn was honest, she looked like she'd been out taking a stroll, never having seen a zombie in her life. Glenn felt it strike him; she seemed untouched by the ugliness of the world, yet was knowledgeable of it.

"You must be Glenn," She drawled, giving him a small smile. All he could manage was a nod and the girl stepped into the room. "I'm Lucy." She approached the bed and as she did so, she pulled something from her pocket and dropped it on the mattress by his feet. Glenn looked down and almost fell over. A candy bar. He tore into it as Lucy took a seat in the chair to the left of his bed.

"Sorry about Jorge and Felipe," She started. Glenn looked at her, still not saying anything, his mouth full of chocolate. "They told me about how everything went down. They're going to try and make a trade with your friends. You for Miguel." She told him.

"That why they practically tossed me off a roof?" Glenn asked. Lucy smiled again.

"We're desperate." She explained. "Gotta protect what's ours. Even if it means faking the hard ass." She crossed her legs and put her hands in her lap. "Where you from, Glenn?"

"Michigan."

"I had family up there." She told him. Her voice was conversational. She wanted to be clear that she had no intention of hurting him.

"You're from Michigan?" She shook her head.

"No, I'm from a small town a little ways from here. Moved out to the city for school."

"How old are you?" The moment Glenn asked he flushed. "I'm sorry, I didn't-," But Lucy laughed and swatted the air.

"Twenty-three." She told him. "You?"

"Twenty-two." He said through his last bite of candy. Lucy smiled at him.

"It's nice to talk to someone my age for once." She shook her head. "G, Felipe, Jorge: they're all at least 10 years older. Miguel's only sixteen." She smiled. "The oldies…"

"Oldies?" Glenn questioned, looking at her. Lucy's gaze had changed to something he couldn't describe. Like…like she was about to share some of the world she'd seen.

"Glenn, I know I said that we're faking hard ass to get Miguel back, but what I meant, was that G is faking hard ass." Lucy voice was calm but stern. "I am not faking anything when I say if you turn out to be someone I don't think you are I will not hesitate to put a bullet in your head." She told him. "It's nothing personal," She assured.

"Got it," Glenn voice was small and Lucy stood, motioning for him to follow her.

"G and Jorge found me in the middle of city. I was starving to death, dying of thirst. I was unconscious and so close to death they said I smelled like it. Took me back here and fixed me up. I'd been on my own for weeks, trying to survive." She looked back at Glenn, who was hanging on to every word. "I was the daughter of a policeman, so to make up for the ugliness my father saw he kept me sheltered. I'd never been on my own, not like that. I'd have died in 24 hours if they hadn't saved me." She told him proudly.

"Wow," Glenn said. "How'd you last a few weeks?"

"Well, most of it I spent in my apartment, which was only a few blocks from where they found me. When I ran out of food I ventured outside, looking for more food. Maybe even people that weren't trying to eat me." She gave Glenn a wry smile. "I was lucky I wasn't swarmed. There were walkers everywhere. G and I figure it was because of my roommate." She said cryptically.

"You're roommate..?"

"She turned and I had to kill her. Stench stunk up the house, even after I disposed of her body. Her smell must have been in my clothes." She explained. Glenn gapped at her. She shrugged.

At that moment they reached the bottom of the stairs. Lucy gave Glenn a knowing look and turned to walk ahead. She disappeared into a room and Glenn slowly followed, passing the other rooms. Ones like the room he'd been in. Except they were filled with people. Elderly people.

It was a damned nursing home.

_A damned nursing home_, Rick Grimes' eyes scanned the rooms he passed by, disbelief rendering him speechless. A damned nursing home and Guillermo had him come, locked and loaded, ready for a fight.

Rick spared a glance back at Daryl, who was glaring at the elderly people and the ones visiting like they were the ones who tricked them. He caught Rick's eye and shook his head. Rick turned back around and continued following the elderly woman and Felipe. They came out into a large room with a stage and group of people huddled in the middle of it.

In the center of the huddle was an elderly man who was huffing and puffing, struggling to breathe. Rick's eyes widened and he looked on, watching as Felipe pushed his way to the center of the group, coming up next to a small girl kneeling in front of the old man, soothing him quietly. Rick tore his gaze away from the group of people and turned to Guillermo as T-Dog snaps at Glenn.

"Can I have a word with you?" He asked, pulling him to the side. "You're the dumbest son of a bitch I ever met. We came here ready to kill every last one of you." He sneered.

"Glad it didn't go down that way," Guillermo nodded, explaining how the staff, save him and Felipe, abandoned the home. How they had to protect the food and medicine and inhabitants.

"What are you, doctors?" Rick questioned. Guillermo nodded to Felipe.

"Felipe's a nurse. Me? I'm the custodian." He shrugged.

Lucy was frozen. Stuck in her position of crouching in front of Mr. Gilbert. She had been worried sick when his asthma attack started. She'd tried to calm him down herself but knew she'd need Felipe. She had no clue where he was, so she sent his abuela after him. She'd crouched in front of the old man, soothing him and trying to get him to breathe. She'd been worried sick and a group had formed around them, Glenn standing on the outskirts. She'd heard Abuela talking as she led Felipe to the auditorium of the home and didn't turn as he came up behind her.

"How's he doing?" Felipe produced an inhaler and crouched with Lucy to help.

And that's when she'd heard it. The voice. It chilled her blood, freezing her entire body in place. She was rigid. She was terrified. If she was wrong...the emotional repercussions would be immediate and they would be very painful. But the voice. That voice. It rocked her to the core. She'd never imagined hearing it again. She was scared to turn around. But her chest was burning to look. To see what she had thought impossible.

Lucy Grimes; afraid of being wrong and losing her father a second time.

"What the hell is this?"

"Asthma attack," She heard Glenn answer.

Lucy's mind was blank. It wasn't possible. It wasn't. It couldn't be. She'd called, she'd spoken to her mother while she and her little brother were on their way to the city. They'd left her father behind. And that was the last she'd heard. The last she thought she'd ever hear. Her mother and brother never made it to Atlanta. And her father was gone. Lucy was alone, she'd come to terms with that a while back, after G and Felipe had saved her. After she'd begged death to show mercy and take her to her family and been denied.

"Man, we thought you were being eaten by dogs!" A different voice; one she was less interested in. Her ears strained to hear him. Maybe if she didn't turn around, she couldn't be heart broken. She could pretend her father was there and safe with her and she would never be let down when she realized that he was, as her mother had choked out, _gone_.

But then she'd be a coward and that was something her father had taught her never to be.

She stood, turning to face the two men she was unfamiliar with. It was a black man who seemed tired and astonished at the sight of the nursing home. He looked a little guarded when he caught Lucy staring at him. But he nodded at her and she gave him a weak smile. Next to him was a redneck holding a…yes. Holding a crossbow. Lucy scrunched up her eyebrows. He lug that thing everywhere with him? His face was blank. Devoid of emotion. Lucy felt her curiosity pique over his apathy but her mind was on something else. Someone else.

Rick turned to Glenn and clasped a hand on his shoulder, pulling the boy towards him and Guillermo. He turned to call T-Dog and Daryl over but their attention was elsewhere. On the small girl who'd been kneeling in front of the old man.

Glenn tried to move but Rick's grip on his shoulder had tightened considerably, locking him in place. He heard the breath rush out of Rick's lungs, as if he'd been punched in the chest, and Glenn's eyes flew to him. Then to where his eyes were directed. They were on Lucy, who was standing with T-Dog and Daryl. She turned and looked at Glenn and Rick, blue eyes sad. Rick made a choking noise and Glenn found his eyes whipping back and forth. Lucy's eyes filling with tears. Rick's eyes filling with tears. They had the same eyes, Glenn noted subconsciously. And it dawned on him, but the words wouldn't come out as Rick lunged for the girl and she met him halfway, throwing her small body into the arms of the grown man.

Sobs. Lucy was sobbing. Rick was holding her.

"_Oh, thank God_." He buried his face in her hair and let out shaky breaths. They had fallen onto the floor, holding onto each other. Lucy's words were unintelligible as sobs racked her body and she clung to Rick.

Glenn was frozen. T-Dog and Daryl were frozen. The nursing home inhabitants were frozen.

And two words became clear to them all.

"_Oh, Daddy."_


End file.
